Monday, December 09, 2013

I'd like to think that we got pretty lucky to score ourselves a
slot at Sat Bains' 'one night only' dinner at Seiobo. Afterall, I was
sharing a room dining with some of the who's who of the Sydney culinary
scene. I love it when renowned chefs come to visit and cook at host
restaurants in our city as it's always a good way to have an idea of
their cuisine without having to buy a ticket halfway across the world.
Plus, it's also great to see how their food sort of fits in with what we
already have here. Most of the time though, such experiences can go
either bad or great and rarely in between. I went to one visiting chef's
dinner in Singapore before and it was disastrous when his team tried to
use mangosteen in their dessert just because they wanted to incorporate
local flavours. And there were the great ones like Ben Shewry whose
food I was impressed with when he visited Singapore for the World
Gourmet Summit one year and Magnus Nilsson who cooked at Marque during
the Sydney Good Food Month. But I digress. Armed with the head chef,
John Freeman, from Restaurant Sat Bains in Nottingham in tow, Sat Bains'
collaborative dinner with the guys at Seiobo was a culinary experience
that was truly mouthwatering.

chicken batter

smoked roe

A little about Sat Bains. Owner of the 2 Michelin
Star Restaurant Sat Bains, Sat Bains won the Roux Scholarship, beating
out Gordon Ramsay in 1999. He had worked under Raymond Blanc and trained
alongside Noma's Rene Redzepi. Restaurant Sat Bains received a Michelin
Star in 2003 and became the first restaurant in Nottingham to earn the
Michelin honours. Interestingly, Ben Greeno who is chef de cuisine at
Seiobo, worked under Sat Bains on and off for about 9 years and
considers Bains as his mentor.

We started in typical Seiobo fashion with a little
canapé of fried chicken batter and smoked roe. It was crispy, moreish
and I could have managed quite a few more. The chicken flavour really
came through and the smoked roe reminded me of mentaiko which I liked
very much.

scampi watermelon

samphire, caviar

The first proper course was Chef Bains' dish which
really helped to set the tone for the rest of the dinner. It was my
first time eating samphire which is a succulent that grows along coastal
areas. I've seen it used so often on British TV shows but never had a
chance to try it. I thought the whole dish came together really well -
perfectly cooked scampi paired with the sweetness from the compressed
watermelon, the brininess of the caviar, the slight sourness from the
buttermilk and the crunch from the samphire. This was a delicious and
refreshing start.

The second dish was a familiar one from Seiobo's
repetoire of dishes. I've had this dish on a previous visit although the
protein at the time was not octopus. The eel dashi and almond milk were
savoury but I found the octupus to lack a distinct flavour up against
the dashi.

eel dashi

octopus, almond

chicken liver 'muesli'

The next dish was one that is served at the
Nottingham restaurant - the Chicken Liver 'Muesli'. This was my
favourite dish of the night. Chicken liver parfait that has been freezed
in liquid nitrogen, crumbed and mixed with oats (and other goody
breakfast grains) and beans, sat on top of hidden surprises of a berry
and apricot puree. Every mouthful was a delight and just digging right
down the bottom of the bowl was such a treat as each spoonful brought a
different mix of flavours. A winning dish it was and possibly one of the
best things I ate all year.

The salmon was another one of Chef Bain's dishes. I
actually liked the umami flavour of the mussel soup but unfortunately,
it was slightly overseasoned. I'm usually not averse to salt so I did
not have much of a problem polishing everything from the bowl but I
could imagine that some other guests might have found it slightly too
salty. It did however, go pretty well with the confit salmon.

salmon

mussel juice, dill

The next dish from the Seiobo team was another
excellent one and probably stands alongside the scampi dish for 2nd most
favourite dish(es) of the night. The marron which was brought in from
Western Australia was plump, sweet and so juicy. Cooking it to
perfection meant that the marron was tender and not at all chewy. I
loved the pickled mushroom sauce and the earthiness of the cauliflower.

marron

cauliflower

The final savoury course was one of Chef Bains.
Whilst R found the lamb to be slightly too fatty for his liking, I had
no problem with all that good fatty bits as it added a tremendous amount
of flavour to the meat. The components on the plate really helped to
cut the richness of the meat as well. In particular, I liked the acidity
from the pickled onions, the freshness of the raw turnips and the
goat's cheese. The lamb jus was slighty gelatinous and incredibly tasty -
I wished I could slurp up every morsel of that liquid! And who can
resist a nicely caramelised potato gratin?!

lamb shoulder

pickled vegetables, lemon, goat's curd

banbury cake

colston bassett stilton, port

As soon as we had the cheese course placed in front
of us, R and I let out murmurs of 'oooohhhsss' and 'aaaahhhhsss'.
Without even tasting it, R declared it his favourite course of the
night! As you can tell, he's a huge cheese lover but what made it even
better was the Banbury Cake that came with the Stilton. A Banbury Cake
resembles an Eccles Cake and is filled with lots of spiced currants - it
was the perfect accompaniment for the Colston Bassett Stilton which was
brought in from Nottinghamshire. It was excellent and while many might
not take to blue cheeses well, I was a huge fan before and an even
bigger one now after having that amazing Stilton.

The first of the 2 desserts we had was from Seiobo's
team - Sorrel Ice Cream with Pistachio Cream and Muntries. I liked this
quite a lot although it was really simple. I've always loved the
flavour of sorrel and to be honest, it kind of reminds me of mangosteens
everytime I have it. Anyhow, I've had sorrel sorbets a few times but
having it incorporated into an ice cream was a first. The pistachio
flavour came through pretty distinctly which came a little as a surprise
but a pleasant one.

sorrel

muntries, pistachio

chocolate

cherry, tobacco

The second dessert was an intriguing one from the
visiting chef who also serves this at his Nottingham restaurant. It was
introduced to us as an aerated chocolate cake. It certainly looked the
part as one could see the air pockets which looked like honeycomb.
However, in the mouth, it simply had the same texture as a regular
chocolate bar. I was then explained to by the chef that it was a complex
process which I'm not going to divulge here just to keep the suspense.
Let's just say that "air" was introduced then taken out again somewhere
along the way. The classic combination of cherry and chocolate working
well was an understatement.

We finally ended the meal with 2 petit fours - the
Salted Caramel with Konbu from the Seiobo kitchen and traditional
Canelés from Sat Bains.

canelé & kombu caramel

I loved this meal and I
liked that someone came around to shake things up in the kitchen.
Things like these usually help open our eyes (and tastebuds) to the
ideas and foods that are served in other parts of the world. I know I
did start off in this post saying that events like this should save me
from travelling but there is a problem that I failed to mention. It
looks like I might want to visit Nottingham someday. And more
specifically, Restaurant Sat Bains.